formatted /boot. How to recover?

no24 · 2007-02-08 00:17:55

Heh, figured this would be a learning experience so I went ahead and formatted through my /boot partition to resize my root partition, but so far I've had no luck resolving the problem.

I've tried using livecds (ubuntu) as well as arch's cd and super grub disk, but I can't get grub to reinstall... the methods seem to rely on having grub's setup files installed already but i believe they were on /boot.

How can I fix this?

no24 · 2007-02-08 00:30:41

btw, for some reason when I turn on my comp it does start with Grub, and immediately gives Error 17 (i understand that to be for an unrecognized filesystem), so it's possible remnants of grub remain?

paperinik · 2007-02-08 02:44:15

no24 wrote:

Heh, figured this would be a learning experience so I went ahead and formatted through my /boot partition to resize my root partition, but so far I've had no luck resolving the problem.
I've tried using livecds (ubuntu) as well as arch's cd and super grub disk, but I can't get grub to reinstall... the methods seem to rely on having grub's setup files installed already but i believe they were on /boot.
How can I fix this?

This is my theory of how I would try to fix if I were in your predicament:

I am assuming your /boot partition contained grub and the kernel. I would use Arch's cd, and start the usual install. When you reach the stage where you Set Filesystem Mountpoints, set the /boot partition for the appropriate filesystem and let it format. I am not sure if the installation can be made to ignore the / and swap Mountpoints and formatting (maybe you let the install mount it but not format). Next, choose only the Grub package from the base and let it install. The final round is to install the kernel and Bootloader.

no24 wrote:

btw, for some reason when I turn on my comp it does start with Grub, and immediately gives Error 17 (i understand that to be for an unrecognized filesystem), so it's possible remnants of grub remain?

I think the error is about grub not finding the files (stage1, stage2, etc) in the grub folder.

Good luck.

no24 · 2007-02-08 03:05:42

i attempted a process similar to this earlier, but I couldnt get it to ignore the / mountpoint. but i didnt try any further, so maybe I can get it to mount and not format. I'll try it again. thanks!

Last edited by no24 (2007-02-08 03:06:11)

arew264 · 2007-02-08 04:09:40

Well, to me it would seem as though you want to boot an arch disk in rescue mode and have it reinstall grub and the default kernel.
the /boot partition is also known as the MBR (master boot record) and is the home of whatever bootloader you have and everything the bootloader needs to start your computer's kernel. Without it, you get that error because your motherboard's BIOS simply can't find anything to boot.

I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of problem, but just try using a rescue disk to boot it and reinstalling the default kernel and grub, assuming that you reformatted your boot partition but you still _have_ one.

mutlu_inek · 2007-02-08 04:38:41

arew264 wrote:

the /boot partition is also known as the MBR (master boot record)

Surely not. ^^

Back to topic:

Boot the Arch Install CD.

Then execute the following commands (Substitute sdaX with the appropriate partition device names, maybe rather hdaX. In this case /dev/sda1 is /boot; /dev/sda3 is /. If you have a separate /var or other partitions (other than /home), make sure you mount them, too.):

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys

chroot /mnt /bin/bash

install-grub /dev/sda /dev/sda1

pacman -S kernel26

Review /boot/grub/menu.lst

Reboot.

I am not sure whether this is sufficient, but I think it should work. Good luck!

noriko · 2007-02-08 04:47:48

well maybe u tried the wrong thing.
it's a case of.

mount /dev/[xdxX|root] /mnt
mount /dev/[xdxX|boot] /mnt/boot
chroot /mnt bash
pacman -S grub
grub-install [options]
pacman -S kernel26[- version]

that's just off the top of my head, but i'm fairly certain it works. so good luck mate

no24 · 2007-02-08 05:54:02

haha thanks for all your help. I ended up getting the first suggestion to work after a few struggles here and there. The second two methods sound a lot simpler. I'll try it the next time I format /boot. .

btw im trying to find out in another thread of mine, but if I want to adjust my kernel with make menuconfig, and i download the source kernel, am i supposed to transfer the extra iles to my existing /2.6.19-ARCH/ path, or am i supposed to recompile from the vanilla kernel i downloaded, and its not any different from the stock arch kernel (assumings same 2.6.19)? sorry still newbing about. (if its the first option, can you explain how to properly transfer them? I've tried but failed)

Arch Linux

#1 2007-02-08 00:17:55

formatted /boot. How to recover?

#2 2007-02-08 00:30:41

Re: formatted /boot. How to recover?

#3 2007-02-08 02:44:15

Re: formatted /boot. How to recover?

#4 2007-02-08 03:05:42

Re: formatted /boot. How to recover?

#5 2007-02-08 04:09:40

Re: formatted /boot. How to recover?

#6 2007-02-08 04:38:41

Re: formatted /boot. How to recover?

#7 2007-02-08 04:47:48

Re: formatted /boot. How to recover?

#8 2007-02-08 05:54:02

Re: formatted /boot. How to recover?

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